Whether baking a cake or preparing unique dishes, both require the necessary and assorted ingredients: time, expertise, finesse and the ability to tweak the recipe to obtain the desired results. Guess what? Portfolio construction and financial management may not be all that different. In effect, a financial professional is expected to build an investor’s portfolio after carefully ascertaining precisely what is the individual’s risk tolerance, challenges, goals, timeline for investing and end-point needs. Yet how does an investor go about locating a financial professional in the universe of available services and the multitude of different titles?

As 2017 ends and 2018 begins, this may be a great time to reevaluate your financial health. For many, 2017 proved to be a financial market bonanza, depending on whether you participated in the financial arena and how your investments were allocated. Prior to year end, there may be time to review profits and losses with the tax implications of selling and netting, or keeping and carrying over into 2018.

Every year, articles are written about tactics to employ and take advantage of before year-end to save on taxes. However, the year 2017 is unique in that tax reform is being proposed right now…and will possibly be passed before the end of the year. The proposed tax plan recently released has a host of changes that, of course, makes some happy and others irate. As characteristic of proposed legislation, the initial release is just that: a starting point for discussion and debate. The final law, if it were to pass, will undergo changes both overtly and covertly via horse-trading in backroom deals and compromise.